Verdant grass shone with an emerald luster under the bright sun. It was perfect, the kind of grass that has signs and cranky old men telling you not to walk over it. It was the kind of grass that would be accepted by even the strictest of HOAs. However, this was no well manicured lawn, this place of life was a natural formation.

The meadow was filled with short grass, but it was surrounded on all sides by taller vegetation. First the long grass of wild grains, then thick brambles and berry bushes. Only a few paths could be made out to what was beyond the hedge wall, the woods, well known to be far too dangerous.

This small area was like a paradise to small furry animals and younger kids alike, or at least it would be, if it wasn’t often interrupted. The silence of the day was easily marred by grunts' heavy breathing, as well as the crack of wood on wood. Not too far away, there were the sounds of bells jingling, across from the loud occasional sounds of magic.

“Come on Triston, learn to block with your full body. Or did you pawn off your shield defense card for lunch money again?” A loud voice came over the field. A young blond boy stopped for a second, looking up at the owner of the voice. The owner was a large man, with long hair and wearing plate armor. “Pay attention!” The words of the adult were driven home by the smash of a club into the side of the boy’s head.

The rest of the groups ignored the coach and Triston, working on their own defenses and attacks. It was a group of ten people, all clearly focused on combat. They trained with wooden swords and shields while running around in real metal armor. The armor didn’t really fit any of them well, no one made fitted armor for children after all, but they were still training in it still.

The fighters were in a field that looked like a football field, with lines painted on the ground and everything, but they spent all their time doing these combat drills while switching every ten minutes and sometimes running or doing push ups.

To one direction, where all the sounds of bells were coming from, was a giant playground. It was a jungle gym of large proportions, with everything from ropes to tubes. Climbing all over the jungle gym were students in weird looking outfits. They looked kind of like ninjas, but each one had dozens of brass bells dangling from them all over.

The adult in this area was not giving advice to his charges, instead choosing to watch with piercing eyes from the top of the structure. Occasionally, students would try to climb up towards him, but he always just stared at them and they backed off.

In the other direction, the loudest group had to be those which were clearly practicing magic. That end of the yard had a section of packed dirt instead of grass. There were logs set into the ground, and every few seconds one of the logs would be buffeted by fantastical energies.

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“Goddess of light, guide my wand, show the enemy your might. Engulfing Light!” A lazer hit one of the logs. It was about an inch thick, a beam of white light, and left a small burn.

“Good job, now we just need to expand your image of that skill. It’s not coming to its full potential.” This adult was an older woman with olive skin and dark hair tied up in braids. “Claire, you’re up.”

The next girl was dark skinned with thick curly hair. She was wearing a blue robe, which had silver-white accents. “Ororo, Pierce, and Virgil. Trio of Lightning, hear my call.” As she held her hands out, sparks began to fly between her fingers and, and even her eyes began to glow with blue electric light. “Thunder Swarm!” She jabbed her fingers forward, causing the electricity to begin to jump from her fingers.

The targets didn’t know what hit them, and not just because they were still defenseless inanimate objects. Their sparks moved with, appropriately, lightning speed and each one landed on at least one of the targets. The area the spell covered was visible with a light that seemed to energize the air, only going away as the sparks were grounded.

“Wow, that was amazing.” The teacher said, her jaw slightly agape. “I mean, seriously, I don’t know what to say. Why did the field around the sparks glow like that?”

“Oh, that was ionizing… er, the little things in the air were being hit by the spell as well?” The girl looked like she wasn’t sure what to say. At that moment she looked down, seeing that there was smoke coming from under her robes. “Goddess damn it! I burned through my soles again.” She sighed. “Damn leather isn’t a good enough insulator.”

“I don’t know about that. I suppose if you keep the way you’re going you can get into one of the big city academies. Out there, they have reincarnated people. They might be able to tell you about all that.” The mage woman turned to the next. “Alright, Saddie, you wanted to show me… bonfire?”

The little girl with the pigtails nodded. She was wearing a small woodsie outfit with a beret, and lifted her hands. When she cast her spell, the targets were all lit on fire in a massive blast.

“This is ridiculous.” One of the rogue testers said as he walked up to the instructor on the top of the jungle gym. “You’re being too rigid with your rules. What kind of rogue is so strict?”

“It’s my test. Why are you so worried, think you’ll fail?” The man asked, not moving from his spot even though he moved towards the younger boy. “Don’t be stupid, Mark.”

“I’m not asking for special treatment, I’m asking for our skills to be tested in field conditions. This is silly. If we just went down the street or something, I could show you that I have learned so much more!” He reached forward, as if to shake his hand.

“Not gonna happen young man.” The older cloaked figure said, looming over Mark. “Now get down there and come back to actually steal from me. You thief wannabe.” He turned with a swish of his cloak, allowing Mark to walk away.

As Mark got to the bottom of the jungle gym, he raised his hand. In it was a shiny silver belt, which he held up for the others to see. As he did, the man’s pants fell down.

In the corner of the field, a few rabbits hopped lightly, eating grass, and staring at the odd human activities. Humans were weird, after all.